The Brown Bunny
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Movie Reviews of The Brown Bunny
Movie Review: Your Beautiful Life For Me
Summary: 5 Stars
The Brown Bunny is a radiant metaphorical film about the nebulous landscape of intimacy.
The camera follows Bud Clay - a man of indeterminate age whose demeanor is heavily imbued with sadness and insecurity - as he travels cross-country to reach California.
Melancholy, haunting music, and smoldering, impressionistic images of cityscapes and countryscapes during the dusk and nightfall convey to viewers the tangled emotions Clay is tormented with as he finds his way to California.
The further Bud drives forward towards California, into the future, the further back in time Bud's mind and emotions travel as he relives painful memories of a young woman he once loved; Bud is nostalgically reliving the same cross-country journey he once had with the young woman in his memory, reliving all the emotions and twists and turns.
Brief, tenuous encounters with three lonely, alienated women (who represent different aspects of the woman he loved) further confuse Bud and hinder his ability to escape memories that plunge him into a synthesized, emotionally arresting knot of anger and impassiveness and resentment and emotionless.
After Bud reaches California and enters a hotel room he once shared with the woman he loved, we realize that Bud has been trying to break free of her memory by diminishing her and her love: he has been trying to delegitimize her life and her love for him, and he has even emasculated himself in order to justify his anger and resentment and confusedness towards her, and to justify eliminating her memory.
But in the afterglow, we know that Bud will never eliminate her memory, she will always be in his mind, his past actions (or lack thereof) will infinitely haunt him, the sum total of their acts will engulf him, and his mind will circuitously evolve around his memory in the same manner that the sun rises and the roads turn and the sun sets - ad infinitum.
Magnificiant cinematography and use of desaturated colours, haunting soundtrack score (Come Wander With Me, The Dying Song [which should have been played in the film]), flawless acting and direction by Vincent Gallo, courageous choice by Chloë Sevigny; this film is the pinnacle artpiece of Gallo's career and oneof the most underrated, underappreciated, and misunderstood films of the 21st century.
Movie Review: If I gave you my love...
Summary: 5 Stars
kubrick says, "One man writes a novel, one man composes a symphony, and one man directs a film". Of course Gallo obviously embraces this point of view, but the motivation is not about narcissism. Kubrick gave himself up for what he loved didnt he? Its about personalism, honesty, and being bold without compromise. What Gallo does here can be appreciated on many levels, and at the same lacks all pretension. The superficial metaphors and 'juxaposition' that film school tries to celebrate as 'expression' cannot be located in his work. Don't get me wrong, theres plenty of ambiguity and poetic visions throughout the film, but isn't it nice to be 'left alone' by a film as opposed to being taken hostage like most of modern cinema. The generosity of the style and the temporal narrative, the emergent quality of the films composition and music, and subtle performances.. If you havent noticed, American cinema has been largely uninteresting in recent times, and because of our nostalgia for past works, the filmmakers have no insight that warrants singular, let alone repeated viewings. This film is 'open' in the philosophical sense, for speculation and discourse, and can shed light on the behaviors we exhibit in times of pain and terror. Of course Gallos aesthetic sensibility has been cultivated in such a way, that he goes to his subject with the eye of a child, in the best sense, and shows us a reality that we could normally miss. 'Time', 'future', finitude', 'attachment', all work at once in our everyday existence, just as he presents, and doesnt always come in totally unique and extreme scenerios. Now isnt this kind of reflection, posed by an avid intellect, what film is all about. Here Gallo only does what every heavyweight director has done, which is to introduce an artistic language that has only existed in other mediums up to that point, to stretch the possibilities. Minimalism his obvious choice. Much has been said about the explicit scene, and the question of its neccessity. Film is about IMPACT, it always has been, the nature of the shot gives it its psychological power, and leaves the viewer having to take a look in the mirror at his or her own sexual practices and the pathologies behind them. Of course you could have an Oliver Stone inferiority complex with added penis envies to boot and hate the the personality of the filmmaker, but the film itself, is still very special...Movie Review: Artistic, offbeat, odd and disturbing mix of reality and fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an odd and haunting independent film, the brainchild of Vincent Gallo, who wrote it, directed it and stars in it. He's saying something in this film, something that seems a bit distorted. But he says it well and because of this, there is a discomfort in watching it.
This is the story of Bud Clay, who we meet as he loses a motorcycle race in New Hampshire. He puts his motorcycle in is van and then takes off for California, where he is scheduled to participate in another motorcycle race. We ride with him in that van, long stretches of roads through middle America. And we also feel his pain about something although it takes a while for us to understand that he is obsessed with the loss of his true love, Daisy. Mr. Gallo could be called a homely man. His features are craggy and awkward, his nose looks misshapen. But he has deep and sorrowful eyes and his fine acting makes his character seem real.
I understand the film has been cut from the original and now runs a mere 90 minutes or so. This is good because even though there is not much action I was never bored as I watched this long journey. Along the way he meets some women, but he just can't get over his love for Daisy. And then, just as I thought that Daisy was a mirage and never existed at all, we meet her. Chloe Sevigny plays this role and even though she is on screen for just a short time, she is wonderful. There's a scene then that probably has caused this film to be banned in many places because it is extremely explicit and violates whatever censorship rules are usually in place. And yet, it is sad and very real and necessary to the film.
How it all turns out is not pleasant as I realized that the whole film was a mix of reality and fantasy. I will probably never forget it. I thought it was a small piece of art even though it is too weird for the average viewer. Some will be bored. Some will be disgusted. And many will be sad. So don't bother with this film unless you're prepared for something very different with an overtone of melancholy. I therefore recommend it for only a few adventurous film buffs.
Movie Review: no funny bunny here.....
Summary: 5 Stars
for those familiar with vincent gallo's buffalo 66, i need not really say much more to pat the man on his back. the film had layers of dark humor, lots of heart, & quirkiness to make us fall in love. gallo returns with a another love story of sorts but there is no dark humor or quirkiness here whatsoever. this time around he introduces us to a lonely, lost soul traveling solo on the highway after just finishing a bike race. along the way back to california, he meets three different women who all seem to be lacking what he longs for. love. in between the meeting of these three unique women, we see many long shots of driving while hearing rather somber music.brown bunny is essentail a very lugubrious ballad about the journeys we sometimes make only to find that we can never go back to what we once had. vincent gallo shows us how much we really want to have hope even though our heart has nearly convinced us there is no hope to be found. contrary to what reviewers have written, brown bunny is a very soft if not slow moving film with very tender scenes not unlike some of the tender moments in buffalo '66. the tile itself basically has two meanings. gallo's girlfriend chloe left the pet bunny with her mother when she moved to california & never came back for it. my interpretations: gallo's character felt like he'd abandoned chloe when she needed him the in the most crucial moments. also, gallo had given chloe a chocolate bunny for easter which she had eaten completely(or so we learn through dialgoue) & thrown up shortly afterwards. in the most heartfelt dialogue between vincent & chloe, we learn the he kissed her anyway because he truly loved her. yes, there is a very graphic sex scene at the end of the film(the last ten minutes) but i personally didn't feel this took anything away from the film. the ending was intended to be very dramatic, emotional, & raw. recommended.Movie Review: Vincent Gallo is my friend.
Summary: 5 Stars
Because Vincent is my friend, you'll think my opinion is biased, but now that that is out of the way, here goes...
Vincent said to me one day, "Bunny, I'd like to make a movie about you.", and I said "Sure. As long as it has absolutely nothing to do with me, and so long as it has lots of aliens, a carnival scene, killer special effects using monster trucks, and a few people eating cereal."
But it didn't turn out that way, such is life. The only suggestion of mine that I demanded be included in the film was the monster truck stuff. But instead, Vincent had motorcycles. But that was OK because he can ride em' pretty well.
Anyways, now that I have established my credibility, on to the movie review. I never actually saw the film. I just know a lot about it, because Vincent and I spoke about it all the time over tea in the afternoons.
He assured my it was a great film but had his doubts. I believed him because he was so sincere and he also spent hours and hours designing the posters and all. Besides, why would someone go through all the trouble picking out the perfect colour for a poster for a film that was like, not great in the first place?
Between filming, we watched a few episodes of Twilight Zone, and we liked some of the songs in one of them, so he included it in the film. I'm not sure, but I think the character in The Brown Bunny had some similar struggles with the particular character in the Twilight Zone episode.
So if you like Twilight Zone episodes, I have no idea whether or not you'd like The Brown Bunny or not, because people can be so wishy-washy all the time. This guy likes Planet of the Apes and Seinfeld, while that gal likes The King and I and Soilent Green.
You never know. You pigeon-hole something one day, and you end up pulling out a rabbit the next.